International Box Office: Iron Man 3 flies past $700 million

May 9, 2013 - By Alex

You thought Iron Man 3 was impressive in North America? Wait until you see the film’s 2nd weekend around the world. Let’s just say that Tony Stark’s latest adventure is currently closer to $800 million worldwide than it is to $700 million.

To call Iron Man 3 a phenomenal success would be an understatement, considering the film is still ahead of The Avengers (only the biggest box office hit of 2012) at the same point in its run, internationally. So if last week brought $198.4 million from 42 territories, this last one generated another $174.3 million, adding 12 more territories. After just two weekends, Iron Man 3 was already passed $500 million internationally, way better than the 447.4 million of The Avengers around the same time last year. As we speak Iron Man 3 sits at 563.4 million internationally and a worldwide total of $768.2 million. By the end of the week, it should be at around $900 million, with $1 billion coming shortly after. Before it finally leaves theaters, Iron Man 3 might end up anywhere from $1.2 to $1.3 billion, if not more.

Oh but there’s more, thanks to the box office prowess of Iron Man 3, Disney just hit the $1 billion mark internationally in record time. Apparently this was also the 19th consecutive time they reached $1 billion, but keep in mind; we’re not even halfway into 2013.

Chinese drama So Young was even stronger, again in 2nd, with $53.5 million (of that, my guess would be $30 million or so from the actual weekend). The thing with China is they only post weekly numbers, Monday to Sunday, so there is no way to know exactly how much a film made Friday to Sunday (the numbers I usually follow here).

The Croods came in 3rd, up a spot, grossing $16.6 million for a new international cume of $339.9 million. Worldwide the animated hit has $509 million, ranking as the 10th highest earner ever for DreamWorks Animation.

Bollywood crime drama Shootout at Wadala opened in 4th with a strong $8 million, meanwhile Oblivion rounded out the top 5 thanks to $6.2 million. For the Tom Cruise post-apocalyptic sci-fi, that means $146.8 million internationally and $223.6 million worldwide.